


dead men tell no tales

by reraimu



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Angst, Body Horror, Character Death, M/M, Mild Gore, Necromancy, Tragedy, Witchcraft
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-15
Updated: 2016-10-15
Packaged: 2018-08-22 12:11:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8285416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reraimu/pseuds/reraimu
Summary: They said the dead were supposed to remain dead. Tsukishima Kei takes a detour.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings for coping with death and all that jazz.
> 
> Can't believe I'm writing a multi chap after I promised myself I wouldn't anymore

They had the funeral on a windy overcast day.

It was crisp, the kind of day reserved for shacking up in cozy cafes or getting lost in warm freshly laundered sheets. The gusty winds generated an onslaught of fallen leaves, and it was cold enough to see your breath. It wasn't raining, fortunately, but it was frigid and chilly, and Yamaguchi had to wear two layers of sweaters just to keep warm.

At the beginning of the funeral, Yamaguchi nearly had a panic attack as he stood lost amid a crowd of black. Friends, family, neighbors, they were all there.

The old granny that lived two houses down from the Tsukishimas was towards the back, dabbing her eyes with a tissue. The Neighborhood Association had also come by to pay their respects and were scattered within the crowd; Shimada nodded solemnly to Yamaguchi. There were also many faces that he didn't recognize, but he figured they were probably distant relatives.

Karasuno was also there, both new and former members, huddled in a group. Some of them openly wept, like Hinata who had his face turned in towards Kageyama's shoulder. Some of them, like Tanaka and Nishinoya, were just staring at the ground, their bodies trembling.

The only people missing were Yamaguchi's own parents, who were overseas on a business trip. They had exchanged condolences over the phone, each taking turns in crying to each other. Tsukishima was like a second son to them. They had expressed much grief in not being able to attend, and apologized profusely, promising to visit the grave as a family as soon as their trip ended.

In their stead, Suga ended up planting himself firmly beside Yamaguchi and offered his shoulder to cry on, and though at first Yamaguchi didn't feel comfortable enough to cry in front of his former vice captain, his body eventually caved in.

When everyone was gathered and settled and the eulogies began, he took his seat at the front with the Tsukishima family, just as they had rehearsed.

He sat between Akiteru and Mrs. Tsukishima, holding their hands firmly on either side of him. Mrs. Tsukishima had on large sunglasses that hid nearly her entire face, but they didn't do much to keep the tears from falling. Her grief was different from his own. Where he was loud and messy, Mrs. Tsukishima was quiet but choked up. Whenever someone mentioned Tsukki's name, the tears would renew and her breath would stutter, and when it looked like she was going to gasp, she would quickly cover her mouth with her hand to muffle it.

Akiteru was a bit like Yamaguchi. His body frequently shook and trembled, and the noises of pain he made, as if someone had stabbed him, were loud and disjointed. His eyes were streaked with spidery red veins, and his cheeks shone with the wetness of his tears. He looked a wreck, and Yamaguchi squeezed his hand in reassurance. Akiteru squeezed back. Yamaguchi then spent the rest of the procession blubbering into his tissue.

It went by in a blur. He remembers saying his own eulogy through tears and pleghmy hiccups, but the rest of the procession just amassed into a collage of tears and his frantic attempts to avoid a panic attack.

When it ended, the funeral organisers notified them that it was prohibited to stay and watch the construction crew fill in the plot, so after paying their final respects, they were dismissed.

Akiteru gestured for Yamaguchi to come with them to the car, but Yamaguchi stubbornly told him he wanted to stay a bit longer. After a few seconds of both Akiteru and Mrs. Tsukishima trying to coerce him home with them, they finally relented, but not without Akiteru giving Yamaguchi some cab fare.

Yamaguchi had then spent about a little over an hour secretly watching the construction crew from outside the cemetery gates. When they had finished filling the plot, Yamaguchi quickly scrambled to attention and jogged over to his best friend's gravesite.

There were other mourners mulling about the cemetery, paying their respects to their own loved ones. A mother with her small child gave him a look of sympathy and pity.

He must have looked an utter mess with his red streaked eyes and wet ruddy cheeks. He wouldn't be surprised if there was snot running down his nose. This was the hardest he'd ever cried, after all.

He still held a single lily in his hand, maimed though it was. He had been too scared to throw it down on the coffin as the others had done, too scared to even bear the thought of having to say goodbye once and for all. He had fiddled with the flower throughout the funeral procession ,and by the end of it nearly all its pedals had fallen off save for two.

As he neared Tsukishima's grave, his shoulders shook and his eyes strained as they welled with tears once more. He took one look at the grave placard; it looked too official and it forced him to think of the reality he was in. He let out a wail so shrill it startled the crows from the nearby conifer tree.

He sobbed.

He cried until he was gasping for breath, until he was hiccuping between lungfuls of air, until his eyes were filmy and it hurt to open them. He felt so sore all over, and he could feel the familiar buzz of a headache near his temples. Despite this, he continued to cry.

Choking on his own saliva, Yamaguchi took a wobbly step forward, and then another, until he was finally standing just a scant few inches from Tsukishima's freshly laid grave. There was no grass over it, just dirt, but the grave placard had been neatly put in place. It was made of polished marble in a shimmering onyx color. Tsukishima's name and date of birth was embellished in gold.

"I can't b-believe you're not here anymore, Tsukki," Yamaguchi sniffled, his voice phlegmy and raspy. He traced Tsukishima's name on the placard. "This isn't real."

Tears streamed down his face, forming into fat droplets that plopped down into the dirt below.

"We were supposed to go to Tokyo together," he sobbed, holding his head in his hands, his shoulders shaking. "You finally told me you loved me, how could this happen?"

As wave after wave of sorrow wracked his body, Yamaguchi found himself falling forward, his hands plunging into the dirt. Dirt wedged in his fingernails and scuffed his palms, and the cuffs of his sleeves came away ruined.

During the two weeks leading up to the viewing and funeral, the realization that his boyfriend was dead had never really hit him. The shock was phenomenal, so strong in fact that he had spent most of those two weeks just mechanically going about the motions of someone on the cusp of a mental breakdown. Everything had been so numb and surreal, as if a stage curtain had been pulled over him. What he wouldn't give for all of this to be just an act.

It was true what they say though, it really does hit you at the funeral. Two weeks worth of grief, denial, and false hope poured from him until he had to turn away and dry heave at the base of a nearby tree.

"Why Tsukki, why?" He coughed out, rubbing at his eyes. His lips trembled and he whined low in his throat. "What am I supposed to do without you?"

He didn't know how long he must have spent there, laying down beside Tsukishima's graveside like an abandoned puppy, but eventually a groundsworker came over and notified him that it was closing time and he had to leave before they locked the gates.

Yamaguchi reluctantly obeyed, but not before leaning down to place a kiss at the center of the placard. He then arranged his single maimed flower down beside it.

As he trudged out of the cemetery, his legs unsteady and weak, he looked over his shoulder and blew a kiss.

**Author's Note:**

> The details surrounding tsukkis death will unravel eventually.
> 
> Forgive me for any typos, strictly on mobile and sometimes I miss things.
> 
> Pls stick with me! Kudos and comments r appreciated :3


End file.
